News from New York State Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance

For more information contact: Michael Hayes or Anthony Farmer, 518-474-9516

Syracuse City School District Receives State Funding for Refugee Services

New Program Will Assist Student Resettlement

SYRACUSE, NY (04/15/2008; 1330)(readMedia)-- The State Office of Temporary and Disability (OTDA) today announced a $205,200 grant award to the Syracuse City School District to launch a program that will support the educational needs of refugee children and their families as they begin their life in a new country.

In announcing the grant, OTDA Commissioner David A. Hansell presented school officials with a check at district headquarters in Syracuse.

“Life in a new country can be a very daunting experience, especially for young people who are thrust into an education system that is entirely foreign to them,” said Hansell. “This program and the services it provides to refugee families will not only help these new arrivals better assimilate into the community but will create a foundation that will put these children on a path to future success.”

The Refugee School Impact Grant program provides services, including translation, interpretation and mediation, to address both short and long-term education issues faced by school-aged refugee children and helps to ease their transition to New York schools. Programs are also provided to help refugee parents become involved in the education of their children.

Summer programs, school staff and parent orientations, after-school activities and academic coaching are among the services that will be made available to the refugee students, their parents and school personnel.

The programs are designed to promote positive socialization and integration of refugee children into the communities in which they locate by helping to bridge the cultural and linguistic gaps that exist for new arrivals to the country. Specialized training for school staff about refugees’ history, culture and resettlement will also help this process.

Since 2004, nearly 2,100 refugees, from more than 32 countries, have settled in Onondaga County. This is second only to the more than 2,700 refugees that have settled in Erie County during that time.

“New York has long been a haven for immigrants and refugees in search of a better life for themselves and their families but the transition to a new culture and self-sufficiency can be difficult,” said Hansell. “By providing these vital supports at such an early age we are helping see to it that these children have every chance at success in this country.”

In addition to Onondaga, the Refugee School Impact Grant program is being operated in New York City, Utica, Rochester and Buffalo.

Commissioner Hansell also noted that OTDA is using a $100,000 award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a two-year outreach and education program to reduce childhood lead poisoning in these same communities.

The goal of the project, which began last October and will end September 30, 2009, is to raise community and family awareness about lead poisoning, how it is contracted, how it can be prevented, and what to do when a child has an elevated blood lead level, in immigrant communities by translating materials and training outreach staff in culturally appropriate service delivery for those communities.

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